Seder 59: Exodus 20---Numbering and Grouping the Ten Commandments

 The principles that God spoke from Mount Sinai in the third month of the first year of the Exodus are identified as the Ten Commandments in Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13; and Deuteronomy 10:4.  It has also been traditional to divide the ten into two groups, corresponding to love for God and love for neighbor.  

But the list does not come with numbers, and there are several traditions on how to number them.  Biblical scholar and pastor Michael LeFebvre advocates using literary clues in the text to guide us in formulating a numbering.  

He observes that there are fourteen imperative statements in the list, so some groups of these will need to be combined.  He also notes that there are five statements of purpose for the imperatives in the first part of the list (Ex 20: 2, 5, 7, 11, 12), and that the phrase "the LORD your God" appears five times (in verses 2,5,7,10,12).  These features suggest having one statement of purpose and one use of this phrase in each of the first five commandments.  Lefebvre has verses 2-3 as the first commandment, verses 4-6 as the second commandment, verse 7 as the third, verses 8-11 as the fourth, and verse 12 as the fifh.  This division corresponds to the numbering in the Eastern Orthodox tradition.  

LaFebvre sees the fifth item---respect for parents----as a hinge between the the groups of commandments.  The purpose statement in verse 12 indicates that Israel's future as a nation depends on each generation learning from the previous ones.  For Israel to succeed, each generation would need to honor its parents by learning from them.  

The literary structure in the rest of the lists is different.  Gone are the purpose statements and mentions of "the Lord your God".  These are simply short statements of imperatives, starting in verse 13.  In the later account of Deuteronomy 5, the items are punctuated by a series of "ands."

The final two imperatives are combined into the tenth commandment on coveting.  These last two imperatives run in parallel.  The Exodus 20 has the same verb in each imperative.  The penultimate imperative forbids coveting the "house"---i.e.. the household---of one's neighbor, and the final imperative lists several parts of a household.  

The "coveting commandment" serves to highlight the selfishness that leads to the violation of the previous commandments in the list.  The tenth commandment is unique in ANE law codes in prohibiting an attitude.